June 14, 2003
You want me do to WHAT!!?
10:00 p.m.
Dusty and I went to our first canine agility class today (I say 'canine' to distinguish it from Chicken Agility *grin*).
Our participation is thanks entirely to our friend E, who owns a car, and her dog Chinook, who is enrolled in the next level of agility (beginners) which is the class after ours. The class is way out in the Deepest, Darkest Pickering - next to the nuclear power plant. Fat chance that I'd ever get out there on my own! And with the plant nearby, I can rest assured that if Dusty doesn't learn anything, at least she'll have that nice radioactive glow when we're finished!
There are only three puppies in my class. Apart from Dusty, there's an aussie named Rolex ("he's a watch dog") and Sneakers, a beardie. Dusty is the only small dog. There are advantages to being small - she has plenty of elbow room on all the equipment. But there are also disadvantages - everything is taller.
Dusty did really well in the class. I was the one who kept screwing up! We're not supposed to say the world 'no' to our dog while in class, *ever*. This is hard. The instructor said something to me every time I said 'no.' Thank goodness Dusty knows hand signals because I think the best strategy is to keep my mouth shut unless I'm saying 'good girl.'
We had do do some stuff that we already knew but was executed differently than we were used to. For example, the down-stay: I was asked to put Dusty in a down-stay, then move in front of her, then move back to her side. She found this incredibly confusing. Usually, I stand a few feet away, or very far away. She knows sit, but in our day-to-day life, I mostly ask her to sit in front of me (using the command 'front'), so it was a bit strange to suddenly be asked to sit by my side as we were strolling around in a room full of strange dogs.
The hardest thing we did was walk around the room with Dusty on my *right* side. In obedience training, and on our walks, she walks on my left. If I had known that this was a requirement for agility, I would have taught it to Dusty from the get-go! It is SO hard for a dog to walk on the right when she's been taught to always walk on the left. Yikes! I was finding it really confusing too.
The rest of the class was fairly straightforward. Our work on the 'equipment' in the park really paid off. Dusty ran on the plank enthusiastically - I know she could have done it without the food lures. We've also worked on 'table' at High Park (on a wooden platform they have there). Once Dusty understood that the yellow platform was a 'table,' she did great (for this exercise, she had to jump up on a low platform, sit, down and stay, then jump off when I released her). The instructor complimented Dusty on her 'down.'
The tunnel gave Dusty a bit of a pause, literally. She walked up to it and stopped. It took both me and the instructor a few minutes to coax Dusty through the tunnel for the first time. (this was pretty funny - she spent a few minutes with her rump sticking out of one end, carefully considering whether she dared to move through). After the first time, she flew through it!
The other skill we worked on was 'contacts.' As the dog comes off of a ramp, her feet must touch a yellow zone painted on the end. To accomplish this, she's taught to touch her nose to the ground briefly before she steps off the yellow zone of the ramp. The first step for this skill is teaching the puppies to touch their noses to a contact object - in this case, a metropass cover. Dusty and I had already worked on this (with a margerine lid) so she understood right away what was expected of her.
And that was it for the first class. For our homework, we need to work on the contact and practise walking with Dusty to my right. I started this one right away (excuse the pun!).
We walked up to Churchill Park (it was Dusty's first time in this park) and on the way, I asked Dusty to periodically to walk on my right. She hated it. She kept trying to duck around to my left side and when I asked her to walk on the left side again, her relief was palpable. I think she was getting the hang of it though. I think I'll work on this in the apartment with the clicker before trying it outside again.
Dusty loved Churchill Park! I was excited to take her there because this is one of my favourite parks (Mom, you've been there!). I went there a lot last summer to fly my kite. The park is situated on top of a reservoir, so it's very safe to let the dogs run off-leash. Dusty was thrilled by the vast expanse of green grass. She also played with a little pug. We ran up and down the steep slope on the side of the park. We played with a puppy.
By the time we headed home, Dusty was so tired that I had to carry her for a stretch. We met lots of new people as we walked. Dusty ate her entire dinner from the hands of about four strangers.
Okay, what's next?